This Balanced Breathing Exercise Can Help Rebalance Your Nervous System
One simple exercise to lift you up or calm you down.
Balanced breathing is an easy breathing technique that can help you whether you need a pick-me-up or need to find calm during anxious or stressful situations.
It’s the BOGO of breathing techniques!
Before we dive in, I know there’s a lot of information out there about how many different types of practices like yoga, meditation, breathing, can help you find balance and calm. But, do we know why they work?
I’m a bit of a nerd and also a skeptic of most things. I rarely accept anything on blind faith alone. When determining if something works, I want to test it and I want to understand the science behind it if I can.
What kind of coach would I be if I couldn’t answer my clients’ questions of why? So, I will not teach or share any practice that I’ve not been professionally trained to do and understand, or that I don’t practice myself.
That said, not everyone is interested in the why or in getting down into the detailed science behind it. They just want to know how to do the exercise and see for themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Therefore, my intent with this article is twofold:
Describe how to perform this exercise
Provide a high-level explanation of the science behind why it works
Note: if you don’t like reading step-by-step instructions, I’ve included a video demonstrating this exercise at the end of the article.
How To Do Balanced Breathing
Come to a comfortable seated or lying down position.
If seated, keep your spine long but relaxed, and your chin parallel to the floor.
Place your left hand on your belly, and your right hand on your chest.
Close your eyes or lower your gaze
Inhale through your nose slowly for a count of 4 notice your left hand and belly rising with the inhale
Notice the left hand and belly falling as you exhale at the same pace for a count of 4
If you notice your right hand (on your chest) moving up and down, this is a sign that your breathing is shallow and you’re not fully engaging your diaphragm.
Start off doing this for 2-4 rounds and work your way up to 10.
Note: You’re shooting at a rate of 4-6 breaths per minute. 1 inhale/exhale = 1 breath cycle.
Why Balanced Breathing Can Help Rebalance The Nervous System
So how is this exercise able to rebalance your nervous system to give you a boost and/or calm you?
By engaging diaphragmatic breathing and stimulating your vagus nerve.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Your diaphragm muscle is a thin horizontal band of muscle that lies just below your ribs between your chest cavity and your belly/intestines. You likely notice it most when it spasms during a case of hiccups!
When you breathe using your diaphragm, your belly rises and falls as the muscle contracts and relaxes.
The problem is that most people do not engage in diaphragmatic breathing as often as they think they do.
Ideally, effective breathing results in a good balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
The normal rate of breaths per minute for adults is about 10-20 bpm. With the balanced breathing technique, we slow the breath to about 4-6 breaths per minute to help support or restore this balance.
However, many people tend to “over-breathe”, which is to breath shallowly and a bit fast.
Please don’t confuse this is with hyperventilating!
While rapid breathing above that normal bpm range can result in hyperventilation, it is generally very noticeable to you when that occurs. With over-breathing, you may not be aware of it all, but if you take a moment you may notice that your chest or shoulders are rising when you breathe.
Overbreathing can lead to (or be the result of) a stress response of anxious or agitated feelings, or it can make you feel tired/rundown because it’s messing with that balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Slowing the breath in this exercise can give you a boost or calm you by restoring that balance.
The Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve is actually two nerves but is commonly referred to as if it’s only one. It’s a very long nerve that runs from your head down through an opening in your diaphragm, into your torso.
It is responsible for the parasympathetic nervous system. This is your “rest & digest”’ system that oversees your heart, lungs, and digestive system.
Stimulating the vagus nerve helps improve its tone (think of it as how lifting weights tones your muscles). When its tone improves so does its ability to adapt and adjust, and ergo how you adapt and adjust to stimuli!
Deep breathing, as we do with balanced breathing, is one way to stimulate the nerve and improve its tone.
The vibrations that come from humming, singing or performing ocean/ujjayi breath also stimulate it.
Note: Ocean/Ujjayi breath is often performed as a part of balanced breathing. While I’ve not explained how to do ocean breathing in the text of this article, I demonstrate it in the video linked below.
To Recap
Balanced breathing is a simple and effective practice. It can give you a boost or help calm you through slow diaphragmatic breathing and by stimulating the Vagus nerve.
This helps to restore the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as between the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) and the autonomic nervous system (fight or flight).
Please note, that while this exercise is generally safe and effective for most people, please consult with a physician if you have any medical conditions that may be contraindicated. If you become agitated or anxious while practicing you should stop.
Video Demo:
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